In many restaurants, some food is prepared prior to serving and needs to be stored prior to serving while maintaining the temperature of the cooked food. It is advantageous to be able to maintain a steady and uniform temperature of the cooked food. This is especially the case with certain types of cooked food, such as French fries, for example. Typically, French fries and similar types of foods are cooked by frying a suitable portion amount in heated cooking oil in a fry basket. After cooking, the cooking oil is allowed to drain from the French fries and typically the French fries are then stored in a holding bin until a quantity of French fries is required to fill a customer's order. Typically, the French fries are stored in a heated holding bin made of stainless steel and heated by a heat lamp. The radiant energy from the heat lamp is absorbed by the French fries contained in the holding bin. However, a holding bin that has a standard stainless steel food appliance surface of the holding bin adjacent French fries is relatively cool in the presence of heat lamp radiation, which is not optimum for storage of French fries as some of the stored French fries will contact the relatively cool stainless steel surface and others will not, resulting in a temperature disparity. This effect can be more pronounced as French fries are removed from the bin to fill orders and portions of the bottom surface of the bin are exposed, particularly as to single-layer or individual French fries that are exposed to or in contact with such bin surfaces. A need exists for a heated French fry storage bin having an optimal surface for maintaining French fries in a uniform heated state during storage including as French fries are periodically removed and added to the bin, alternately exposing more and less of the holding bin surface.